In the comments to Still a Man Hears What He Wants to Hear… below, Markadelphia responds (stereotypically) with:
So, this piece begs the question…what if guns were allowed in schools and people chose not to carry one? Would that person be a moron? Is anyone that choses not to arm themselves stupid?
My reply:
Mark, as noted in the piece, 97-99% of the eligible population chooses not to get a CCW permit in the first place. In 2006 there were approximately 836,000 sworn full-time police officers in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Approximately 70% of those are “field” officers, as opposed to desk officers, so that brings the number down to about 585,000. Split by three shifts, and you get about 200,000 officers “on the street” at any particular time.
Divide that up among a population of 300,000,000 and there is one cop for every 1,500 of us. Obviously we don’t have a uniform distribution of either population or police officers, but still, you can see why police officers so seldom prevent or stop a crime in progress, they show up afterwards usually to take a report.
“Most Americans,” Mark, don’t think about it. Many do, and weigh the odds of needing a firearm against the irritation and responsibility of actually carrying one, and decide that they like their chances. (And carrying a firearm is a pain in the ass.) I’m OK with that. It’s called rational decision-making. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
Some people are like Barry – terrified of the responsibility and convinced that they are not mature and competent enough to be trusted with a firearm. I’m OK with that, too so long as they do not work to deny me the right to choose for myself.
Consciously choosing not to carry is not a mark of stupidity. Not considering the question is, however.
As noted above, there are about 836,000 sworn officers in the U.S. – that’s about 0.3% of the total population. If 1% of the general adult population (which the CDC estimates at about 210,000,000) chose to carry concealed, an additional 2.1 million people would be out there, armed in defense of themselves and (one would hope) their neighbors.
Out of every 100 teachers and administrators, one would probably be armed, familiar with the school and staff, and on site if anything should happen that would require armed response – because when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
It’s not stupid to decide to go unarmed in this world, Markadelphia. It IS stupid (and in my view, evil) to deny people the CHOICE.